


Down Into the Dark

by worldturnedupsidedown



Category: Naruto
Genre: Canon-Typical Violence, Gen, Ghosts, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, pre-chunin exams, unbetaed
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-09-14
Updated: 2018-09-14
Packaged: 2019-07-12 09:23:04
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 10,451
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15992333
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/worldturnedupsidedown/pseuds/worldturnedupsidedown
Summary: A D-rank to clear out an old house, what could possibly go wrong?





	Down Into the Dark

**Author's Note:**

> Will I stop adding ghosts into the Naruto universe? Unlikely at this point. Also, I'm developing a liking for Sakura being both too observant and oblivious at the same time concerning Kakashi.
> 
> Each member of Team 7 is obnoxious in their own special way. It was kind of fun writing little innocent, annoying Sakura before the exams.

It was another D-rank mission, something which none of them felt was needed after their C-turned-A-rank mission. They were to clear out a house on the edge of Konoha, a short walk from the deserted shrine and, Sakura wasn't afraid to admit it, it was really creepy. 

"This place is really creepy," Naruto said as he looked around the area nervously. 

Of course when Naruto said it, she had to deny it. "It's just a building, Naruto." Though she couldn't help but jump as leaves rustled behind her, revealing a small brown rabbit. She glanced back at her team, embarrassed, only to see Naruto was distracted. Kakashi and Sasuke didn't seem to have noticed but when she turned her head, she caught sight of them exchanging a look. 

This burned even more than if they had pointed it out in Naruto's loud way. To know they were sharing a joke at her expense hurt. 

"So, we just have to clear this house out?" Sakura eyed the building. It was a two-story house, with a red tiled roof, and curved, overhanging eaves creating a shadowed effect around the house. She would never admit it out loud but the place was creepy. It was a bright, sunny day but the building looked dark, as if there was a shadow over it, despite the fact there were no trees anywhere near it. 

"Yep. Well, and we have to get it ready to sell so a coat of paint wouldn't go amiss. The owner is trusting our artistic judgement." Kakashi stepped up to the front door and unlocked it with the key the owner had given them. The door swung open but no one ventured to cross the threshold first. 

"I can't be the only one thinking that the house wants us to die." Naruto was eyeing the house with what Sakura felt was a healthy dose of suspicion. Sasuke scoffed and stepped over the threshold into the house. He was so brave but Sakura couldn't help but think Naruto was the smarter one of the two right now. It felt rather like sacrilege to think this, even in the privacy of her own head but the thought was there nonetheless. 

_Sasuke is too down-to-earth to be scared of a house_ , Inner Sakura said as she swooned over Sasuke. 

Sakura followed Sasuke inside, though far less confidently than he had. Kakashi and Naruto were next, Naruto almost comically frightened and Kakashi patting him on the head. 

The house didn't seem too bad inside. Yes, it was incredibly dusty and there were piles of rubbish everywhere, but it just looked like an abandoned house. Sakura nodded to herself and started to walk around a little more comfortably. It was time to look at the job. 

"At least we don't have to clear up after any animals." Sakura was really glad that it just seemed to be dust rather than any droppings. Kakashi looked around at her words. He looked as laidback as ever but the fact she got a reaction out of him was something. Naruto and Sasuke were in another room, probably fighting over something and it wasn't everyday she got her sensei's attention all to herself. 

"That is a little strange," Kakashi said. He walked through a doorway into a room with a fireplace and a large window. His footsteps didn't make any sound on the floor, unlike Sakura's. She had always considered herself quite a stealthy person but it was nothing compared to her sensei. 

"Why do you think it is, Kakashi-sensei?" Sakura asked. She looked up at him and wondered if she would ever be as strong as he was. Sasuke maybe, but not her. 

"Could be many reasons. The house could be shut up more tightly than it looks or the last owner could have put poison down." Kakashi shrugged but he continued to look around the place with interest. "Have you thought about how you three are going to do it?" 

"Er... not yet." There was a crash and Sasuke said something too low to catch. There was a roar of anger from Naruto and another crash. Kakashi sighed and wandered out of the room without another word, presumably to stop the fight or at least warn the two of them not to break their client's house. 

Sakura looked around the room, already trying to decide how to sort the house out. Kakashi liked them to do it the shinobi way rather than the civilian way sometimes; other times she was pretty sure he just liked to cause them more work. Maybe there was a wind jutsu they could use or Sasuke could use his fire jutsu to burn any rubbish. 

There was another door on the wall next to where she and Kakashi entered. Curious, she reached out a hand and turned the knob. It led to another room, one which still had the dining table, though no chairs in it. There was a window facing the east so the sun flowed in, and a closed door in the opposite corner of the room. Dust and debris covered the floor, though again, no animal droppings. Sakura went in and as she was examining the room, something flickered out of the corner of her eye. Her neck cracked as she snapped her head around to look at it but it was only the sunlight on a painting. An unusually lifelike painting - one Sakura moved closer to get a better look. 

There were five people in the family. A mother, a father and three children. Twin boys and a girl. The boys were young, hanging onto their mother's skirts with cheerful expressions on their faces (as much as the painting would allow) but the father and the daughter were different. The daughter looked pale and wan, her blonde hair making that even more noticeable. Her father had a beaming grin on his face but the hand on his daughter's shoulder seemed huge compared to her frail frame. 

Sakura blinked at the little girl and felt an odd sort of kinship for her. It must have been what Ino felt for little, bullied Sakura - a mix of tenderness and pity. 

Her thoughts made her angry and she turned her head away from the painting. She left the room in a huff, not noticing the other door was now open at the other end of the room. She followed the loud voices of her team up the stairs and into one of the bedrooms. There were odd pieces of furniture in the rooms she passed, a bookcase empty of books, a chair in the middle of the room, a cradle fit for a very small baby. 

Naruto and Sasuke were bickering about how best to start the job while Kakashi was reading his book in the corner. Sakura rolled her eyes. This was about what she had expected. 

She really didn't like this house. She had barely been here for five minutes and she already wanted to leave. There wasn't even the energy to try and chat with Sasuke. 

"What about clearing all the rubbish?" Sakura said but she wasn't loud enough to be heard over Naruto's voice. Her head was aching as if she had run into a wall and she rubbed her temple. 

"You okay, Sakura?" She turned to see Kakashi was now next to her and looking down at her in concern. His book was still in his hand but at least he was looking directly at her. 

"I've just got a headache and it's not helped by the noise." Thankfully Sasuke hit Naruto across the head and he stopped yelling at top volume. 

"You're too loud, idiot," Sasuke said at Naruto's loud complaint. Normally Sakura would be all over this sign that Sasuke cared but right now her head was hurting far too much to think about it. Inner Sakura was strangely quiet as well and it was adding to this discomforting feeling. 

"I might start downstairs," Sakura said, though she had just come from there. Better to be down there with the creepy painting rather than up here with the noise and headache. Kakashi didn't say anything, just watched her carefully as she left the room. Sasuke didn't look at her but Naruto whispered that he hoped she felt better soon. She waved a hand, not minding the sentiment but unable to respond to it properly.

The headache got worse though as she walked down the hallway and Sakura had to lean against the wall more than once. At the second time, Kakashi appeared in the doorway. "Sakura." 

She knew what he was going to say and she shook her head. "Maybe I need to get some air." She moved to the head of the stairs, suddenly desperate to get out of the house but the pain blasted across her head and everything went white. 

The next thing she was aware of was looking up at the blue sky. Her headache was gone and when she sat up, she felt completely fine. 

"Sakura, are you okay?" Naruto was suddenly there in her face and she instinctively went to shove him away, to get some breathing room. 

"Naruto, I think you need to give her some room." The amused drawl of Kakashi had Sakura turning her head away from her annoying teammate. Her sensei was there as well, and Sasuke too, and all three of them were looking at her as if she was going to start screaming at any moment. 

"What happened?" Sakura couldn't think of anything that would get this reaction from the three of them. 

"You collapsed at the top of the stairs," Sasuke said. He was eyeing her, not with anything she could generously call concern but more with an analytical air like she was a puzzle he wanted to figure out. Sakura blushed a little but then frowned as she tried to remember. 

"I must have fallen backwards." She reached up to rub the back of her head but she couldn't feel any bump. 

"Kakashi-sensei caught you," Sasuke answered her unspoken question. Sakura smiled at her teacher. 

"Thanks, Kakashi-sensei!" 

He didn't say anything in response but she was well-used to that. Between the four of them, she knew she was the more well-adjusted one. He was eyeing her with the same clinical look as Sasuke, but she could see the concern in the line of his jaw underneath the mask. She had found it difficult to read his expressions at first, unless they were obviously telegraphed, but now she was starting to pick up on the small clues. "Sakura, what's the last thing you remember?" 

"I was walking upstairs to find out what all the noise was about." She frowned as she remembered the dining room and the creepy painting. 

"What is it?" Kakashi prompted her. 

"Nothing." She shook her head as if that would help get rid of the memory. "Just this really creepy painting I saw." 

"Wait, Sakura, so you don't remember being upstairs with us?" Naruto blinked guilelessly but at his words Sakura felt a flicker of unease. 

"No?" 

"Naruto was being loud and you said you had a headache," Sasuke added. "Then you went downstairs and Kakashi had to catch you because you passed out." 

"I don't remember any of that." And that was really freaky. "Did I hit my head on the way down? It doesn't hurt." 

"Maybe we need to take you to the hospital," Kakashi said. He was still eyeing her with a strange mix of concern and interest. 

"No, Kakashi-sensei, I feel fine." And she wasn't going to be the one who had to be taken to the hospital while her teammates went on the mission without her. Or worse, they failed the mission because she had passed out. "It was just a headache and it's gone now." 

There was that searching look from Kakashi again. "Are you sure, Sakura?" 

"Yes, I'm sure." No way was she letting her team down. It was bad enough in Wave when she knew she was outclassed and outgunned but here on a D-rank mission? She would die of embarrassment if she had to explain to anyone that they had to leave the D-rank mission because she passed out from a headache and managed to throw herself down the stairs at that. "I'll just stay on the bottom floor. No stairs." She smiled and Naruto grinned back. Both Sasuke and Kakashi looked blank but Sakura didn't let that falter her at all. 

"I'm fine. Really." She pulled herself up to her feet to prove it. She felt a little clumsier than normal, a little more slow and was thankful that their D-rank mission was cleaning a house, not babysitting a bunch of bratty kids again. She could afford to go a little slower. 

"Alright then." Kakashi's tone was carefully casual and Sakura knew that he would have let his doubt show if he thought it would do any good. She stood up straight and looked as steady and as well as she could. "Sasuke and Naruto, you start clearing out the rubbish from the upstairs. Both of you have to do it without touching the floor with your feet."

"What?" Naruto yelped and Sakura held back a wince. Headache or no headache, Naruto was loud, especially right next to her ear. 

"It means you use your chakra to stick your feet to the wall or you walk on your hands. Good practice for both of you." Kakashi clapped his hand and smiled, his cheerful smile he got when he was enjoying torturing his students. His eye crinkled and they could see a faint impression of his smile underneath the cloth of his mask. 

"Bet I can clear more rubbish than you, Sasuke," Naruto could be heard saying as they walked back into the house. Sakura carefully didn't look at the house and ignored the almost malevolent feel of it to look at her sensei. 

"What about me, Kakashi-sensei?" She didn't hold out much hope, she often felt like an afterthought to Kakashi. Naruto and Sasuke were the stars of the team and while Sasuke deserved it and Naruto probably needed a lot more attention considering he had so much to catch up on, she felt left behind sometimes. 

"You didn't think I would abandon my favourite student?" Kakashi asked teasingly. 

"Sasuke's upstairs," Sakura retorted, a comment more suited to her Inner Sakura than her Outer. Oops. Kakashi blinked at her and it seemed, for one brief moment, that she had surprised him. 

"Oh no, I definitely meant you. Now your chakra control is already far ahead of Naruto and Sasuke's but you don't have very much of it. I want you to cast a transformation jutsu on yourself and hold it while we clear out the downstairs." 

That didn't sound too bad. Hard work but Sakura could see the logic in Kakashi's request. Not like his usual weird training methods. She was tempted to transform into Kakashi, just to see if she could surprise him again but another face popped into her head. 

Her pink hair became blonde, her build became smaller and Sakura could immediately feel the drain on her chakra as she kept the transformation jutsu in place. 

"Good." Kakashi looked down at her with no expression apart from a mild form of apathy in his one visible eye. Kakashi got like this sometimes and it had taken Sakura a long time to realise it didn't mean Kakashi didn't care about anything, he just didn't want to show anyone what he was thinking. It was a weird realisation when she had it, when she realised that when she saw emotions from her sensei, it was only because he allowed her to. "Now let's get to work." 

Sakura had never had to hold a transformation jutsu for so long before and she was starting to feel tired before fifteen minutes had gone by. She didn't say anything as she carried rubbish from each of the rooms and dumped all out into the garden, she wanted to show her team that she was fine. She could hold the jutsu and she could carry out the mission. Upstairs there came the sounds of crashes and the bumps as Naruto would lose concentration and release his chakra. 

She yawned and Kakashi looked at her with a twinkle in his eye. "Not getting tired, are you, Sakura?" he asked and she shook her head vehemently. She left him with his book (he had barely lifted a finger to help her clear up the rubbish, telling her she was the one who had to train physically, not him) and headed back into the dining room from before. She ignored the painting, as creepy as it was, and headed towards an open door at the end of the room. 

Her footsteps echoed and creaked on the floorboards as she opened the door more fully. There was a flight of stairs leading down into darkness and Sakura felt a sense of trepidation as she stared down into the darkness. Ninja were supposed to operate as well in darkness as they did in light but that didn't stop the instinctual fear of the unknown. 

A candle would be good. She didn't want to go flying down the stairs and end up at the bottom, proving to her team once and for all that she was more useless than Naruto. She wandered back into the room and found Kakashi exactly where she had left him. His eye was fixed on her and didn't look remotely surprised at her appearance. Not surprising at the noise she was making, an Academy student would have heard her. 

"Giving up already?" he asked in that mild tone of his that was obviously mocking without actually coming out and saying it. She glared at him which he answered with a smile before heading to her bag outside the house. She had packed a storage scroll that she had brought with her mission pay when they had returned home from the Wave. Never again would she be without sanitary products on a mission with three male teammates. She had packed candles on a whim but had reasoned that she had ten spots on her storage scroll so she might as well use them. 

"There's a basement down there and I'm going to check it out," Sakura told Kakashi. He just looked at it with that considering look of his and nodded. 

"Don't fall down any stairs," he quipped before turning his attention back to his book. Sakura huffed and moved into the dining room. She lit the candle with her matches before slipping them into her pocket and heading down the stairs. She was even more cautious about where to put her feet than normal, she was starting to feel really tired with the effect of the jutsu and the last thing she wanted was for Kakashi to be able to tease her.

The basement smelled and she instantly regretted her impulse to explore. There were no dead animals or animal droppings down here either, which was really weird, so the smell came from damp and mold more than anything else. 

There was nothing in the basement of note, though there were a few boxes that Sakura thought they would have to get upstairs before they could have a good look at them. Maybe she could get Naruto down her to help her because being flattened by a box was not a nice way to die. 

She would ask Sasuke but she actually wanted the guy to like her and hauling boxes in a dank, smelly basement was not the way she wanted to impress him. She sighed as she looked around. There wasn't anything visible apart from the boxes but she could hear Kakashi telling her to look 'underneath the underneath' whatever that meant, so she took a closer look at everything. The walls, the boxes and even the floor. No secret passageways, no hidden cupboards, nothing interesting at all. 

"Sakura, did you get swallowed up?" Kakashi could be heard calling her from the top of the basement door. "It's time for lunch but if you're not hungry... " 

He was teasing but that didn't stop her from jumping. "Coming, Kakashi-sensei." Candle in hand, she started up the steps, each footstep giving a reassuring thump as it hit the wooden stairs. She was almost at the top and she didn't need the candle at all with the light spilling from the door. 

A hand grabbed her ankle and pulled her down the stairs, hard and viciously. She cried out, the candle flying out of her hand and the next second her cheek and head hit the steps, dazing her. There was darkness all around her, she couldn't see the open door and the hand was still dragging her down the steps. She clutched up at the boards of each step, scrabbling and frantically trying to kick out at whatever was holding her. 

All her training went out the window and there was just blind panic. She didn't know what the hand was or where it was taking her but she knew she didn't want to go there.

She struck lucky; one of her kicks struck something and it released her with an unearthly howl. She wasted no time in getting her footing and racing to the top of the stairs. She could hear her team now, on the other side of the door, and it sounded like they couldn't get in but when she turned the knob of the basement door, it opened easily. 

All three of them stared at her, wild-eyed, as she stumbled into the dining room and away from whatever had grabbed her. "There's something... down there," she managed to pant out. Something wet was trickling down her face and Naruto was staring at her in horror. Kakashi and Sasuke had already turned back to the basement, Sasuke in a textbook-perfect defensive position while Kakashi had straightened his posture so once again he was the powerful Sharingan Kakashi, rather than their lazy Kakashi-sensei. 

Nothing came out of the basement, the door remained open and they could see nothing coming out from the darkness. It was just like when Sakura went down there in the first place. 

Kakashi was the first one to relax his posture slightly, though he didn't take his eyes off the door. "Okay, lunch outside. Now." There was no option for argument and Sakura didn't want to anyhow. She was limping a little but she was the first one out of the house and once again, she had that feeling of lightness as if some heavy weight was being lifted off her. 

Kakashi waited until they were all sitting there with their lunches before turning to Sakura. "Okay, what happened?" 

Sakura took a deep breath and told herself to pretend it was just another pretend mission report for Iruka-sensei. "I went down to the basement with the candle to see if there was anything down there. Apart from a few boxes, there wasn't anything else. No trapdoors, no hidden closets, nothing apart from the boxes. The boxes were nailed shut and covered with damp and mold and they seemed like they hadn't been moved in a while." She took another deep breath and held back from shuddering. "I heard you call me for lunch, Kakashi-sensei, and then I started up the stairs. Then something- someone grabbed my leg and started to pull me down the stairs. I lost my candle and the door shut at some point but it kept on pulling me down. I kicked it and then it make that sound and I ran upstairs. The door opened and then I saw you guys." 

"The door just opened when you turned the handle? It didn't need any key or anything?" Kakashi asked.

Sakura shook her head. "And I could have sworn the door was open when you called me." 

"It was open," Kakashi said. "We heard you cry out, the door slammed shut and we couldn't get it open. I was about to use chakra to break it but then you opened it." He busied himself with something in his pack and then handed Sakura a clean piece of gauze after pouring something on it. 

"Thank you," she said before applying it to her own face. It stung but it was a manageable kind of pain and without the panic from earlier. "Did you hear the thing? Whatever it was?" She was pretty sure it hadn't been human, no matter how much it had felt like a human hand. 

"Whoever it was I couldn't sense their chakra." Kakashi looked back at the house, his visible eye facing away from Sakura so she couldn't read his expression. Sakura ate her lunch, not removing the gauze from her face until she felt it start to dry and stick. 

"Are you okay, Sakura?" Naruto asked. It was like he had been bursting to ask this but didn't want to interrupt Sakura and Kakashi's conversation. Maybe he was getting more mature. "You were covered in blood when you came out." 

"I think that was where my face hit the stairs." Sakura reached a hand up to her face but didn't touch it. It already felt raw and open. There was no telling what she looked like right now. Probably like something out of a horror story. She shifted in her seat and winced. She moved to have a look at her leg and then stared. 

"What is that?" Sasuke sounded horrified and immediately got Kakashi's attention. Sakura was too busy looking at the dark handprint on her leg, the size of an adult man and far darker than a normal bruise. It was an almost poisonous dark purple and Sakura felt ill just looking at it. The sick feeling mingled with relief that at least there was proof she wasn't going mad. 

"Is this where you were grabbed, Sakura?" Kakashi asked quietly. He sounded angry but his hand when he touched Sakura's leg was gentle. 

"Yeah. It hurts a little but not as much as my face." 

"That looks really painful," Naruto said, wincing in sympathy. Sakura smiled at him in gratitude. 

"Just aches a little. A bit like an old bruise or muscle ache." Naruto looked blank at this but Sasuke nodded his understanding. "It looks worse than it feels." 

"I'm glad it doesn't hurt too much." Kakashi smiled at her but there was something patently fake about this smile. It might be the waves of anger still rolling off him or the glances he was casting at the house. "Now eat up, my little genins. You have a decision to make." 

"What decision is that, Kakashi-sensei?" Naruto asked, his cheeks already filled with rice. 

"You have to decide whether you want to continue this mission. Just like our C-rank, this mission's difficultly has gone up and now it's a team decision about what to do about it. Sakura is the one who got hurt, so the final decision rests with her but you two have to decide what's the correct decision here." Kakashi smiled. "I'll leave you three to discuss it." He wandered off but Sakura didn't fool herself for a second and think he was out of earshot. 

"No house is going to scare me," Naruto said defiantly, only to be elbowed by Sasuke. 

"It's up to Sakura," he hissed. Sasuke turned to Sakura, his full attention focused on her a heady thing. "Sakura, what do you think?" 

Sakura looked back at the house and thought for a moment. She was scared still but she felt a lot better now she had her team with her. They could go back, their mission ranked differently and given to a team of chunins and jounins but something pulled Sakura to the house at the same time as she was repelled by it. She felt like she had to finish this mission and it was hard to articulate why. 

But she didn't want to go back into the house again. Dilemma. 

"I want to continue the mission," she said. "But I really don't want to be the one to go back to the basement again." 

Sasuke's mouth quirked. "I don't think Kakashi-sensei is going to let you anywhere near the basement." 

"You really scared him, Sakura," Naruto said as he finished off the last of his lunch. Sakura bit into a rice ball and wondered. Kakashi seemed to delight in torturing them with D-ranks and weird training sessions that you didn't fully understand even after you passed them but when they had gone to Wave, Kakashi had been worried about the three of them when they had faced Zabuza and he had even gotten out of bed when he really should have been resting in order to teach them tree-climbing. 

"You heard him. That thing had no chakra, or at least nothing he could sense. For a powerful jounin like Kakashi-sensei, being surprised like that probably doesn't happen that often." Sakura nodded to herself. Kakashi liked to believe he was an island but he cared for them all the same. 

"And what have you three decided?" Kakashi sounded more like his normal self when he rejoined the group. His tone was light and gently teasing and Sakura felt herself smiling at the return to normalcy. 

"We stay for the mission," Sasuke said, their designated speaker in moments like this. "But Sakura isn't alone in the house." 

"I didn't say that," Sakura protested immediately. Her Inner immediately started panicking over her talking back to her crush but Sakura ignored her. "i just don't want to go back down into the basement. Everywhere else should be fine." 

"Good idea, Sasuke," Kakashi said. "And no one is going down to the basement apart from me." He knelt down beside Sakura and she looked up at him. He was still a lot taller than her even when they were both seated. "Come on Sakura, let's make sure those wounds are dressed properly. Sasuke, Naruto, come here and revise your first-aid." 

Kakashi's familiar lecturing tone had Sakura relaxing even more than when she had left the house. She had liked the anatomy lessons Iruka-sensei had given them in the Academy and she listened to Kakashi explaining it to her teammates. He had a different way of explaining it. Iruka-sensei had known how to make sure everyone understood without anyone feeling like he was talking down to them. Kakashi-sensei was condescending, he couldn't help it, but it was a vague feeling, where you got the sense that it wasn't anything personal. When he talked about things like first-aid, you could tell he had first-hand recent experience of it. 

It took longer for Sakura to be patched up than if Kakashi had just done it himself but she didn't mind. Although she had said she wanted to continue the mission, there was a fairly large part of her that didn't want to take another step into that house ever again. However, there was a fine line between listening to your instincts and cowardice and Sakura was not going to be on the wrong side of that line. 

Unfortunately, the time came quicker than she would have liked and soon she was going back into the house. Kakashi had put Sasuke with Sakura as they cleared the other downstairs rooms, Naruto was in the dining room and Kakashi would be in the basement. Normally, Sakura would be head over heels at the thought of being alone with Sasuke but most of the time she was trying not to freak out at the house. Inner Sakura was muttering dark curses about their luck and Sakura pushed her away irritably. 

Sakura and Sasuke had managed to clear all the rubbish without further incidents when Kakashi and Naruto appeared at the doorway. Kakashi immediately focused on Sakura. 

"Everything alright?" 

"We've been fine, sensei. Did you find anything in the basement?" He obviously hadn't been attacked, although Sakura didn't know what they would have done if he had been. Naruto and Sasuke had managed to help when Kakashi-sensei was trapped in the water bubble but Sakura hadn't done much at all. Maybe she could be bait in this instance. 

Kakashi shook his head. "The concrete floor is too thick to tell if anything is underneath it and like you found, there are no catches or secrets hidden in the walls. If we weren't having to keep the house in one piece to sell, I could rip up the floor and have a proper look." He shrugged his shoulders. "But whoever it was seems to have gone back into hiding. Naruto and his clones can help me with the boxes. You're both fine to continue." It was a question and a statement wrapped in one. 

Sakura and Sasuke nodded in unison and when Kakashi and Naruto left, they got back to unpacking the boxes and sorted through miscellaneous junk that was hanging around the place. Sakura unearthed a doll from underneath one of the half-rotting floorboards. It was a pretty thing, knitted cloth showcasing a smile and yellow yarn stitched onto the top of the doll's head to create hair like the little girl's from the picture. Sakura touched her own hair and was surprised to find it pink. The jutsu must have worn off at some point. 

"Sakura?" Sasuke asked and she turned to look at him with a smile. He looked partly concerned and partly impatient. "You're okay." 

"It's okay, Kenji. Father won't be back for hours." Sakura went back to stroking the doll's hair. She remembered her mother giving her this doll. She had managed to hide it from father, who liked to use things she liked against her, and at night she had whispered all her secrets into the cloth ear. 

"Sakura, what did you say?" Kenji spoke again but Mei just started to hum as she stroked her doll's hair. She loved this dolly, although she still didn't know her name. Sometimes dollies just didn't have names. Someone grabbed on the shoulder and she let out a little gasp of surprise. 

Kenji was looking down at her. "What did you say?" he said slowly and Mei smiled. 

"It's okay, little brother. Father won't be back until tonight and I'll make sure he leaves you and Kai alone." It was what she was supposed to do as a big sister even though Father scared her more than anything. 

"Kakashi!" Kenji yelled and Mei flinched back. She hugged her dolly to her and glared at Kenji. 

"Why are you so loud? You'll wake her," Mei scolded her brother quietly. "And you don't want to wake up Mother either." She would tell Father and then they would both be in a whole of trouble. 

Nakamura-sensei appeared at the door with Kai. He must have been giving her brother his lessons on writing. Kai didn't like to write, he said the squiggles got all jumbled and confused when he did it but when Nakamura-sensei had hit on the letters as art, Kai had liked writing a lot more. 

"Sensei! Kai!" She beamed at them but they both looked worried. 

"She keeps calling me Kenji and she didn't respond to her name," Kenji said to sensei in a low, worried tone. Mei stared at her younger brother. Why was he acting like he was the older one? She was bigger and he had to listen to her when Mother was asleep and Father was out. 

Sensei came up to her and knelt in front of her. "What's your name?" 

"Sensei, you're being weird." Mei wrinkled her nose. 

"I know." Sensei smiled but it was sad somehow. "But just humour me for the moment. Your name is..." 

"Mei," she answered with a giggle. 

"And my name is?" 

"Nakamura-sensei!" Then Mei nodded to her two brothers because she could guess what sensei was going to ask next. "And they are Kenji and Kai. My brothers." 

"That's very good, Mei. Now, can you give me the doll for a moment?" Nakamura-sensei held out his hands in expectation but Mei just stared at them with her brow furrowed. Nakamura-sensei was distant but trustworthy. He wouldn't hurt her dolly but she didn't want to lose it because he thought she was too old for it. "I won't hurt your doll, Mei." 

"Promise you'll give it back?" Mei asked and her sensei smiled.

"I promise." 

"And you won't give it to Father? I don't want to be locked in the basement again, it's scary down there." Kai looked like he was about to say something but Kenji stamped on his foot. 

"I promise I won't give it to your father. Mei, give me the doll please." She handed it over with some reluctance. As soon as the doll was in her sensei's gloved hands, Mei faded away and Sakura was left in her place. 

She took in a few deep breaths, feeling like she had just been underwater for a long time. Kakashi-sensei was holding the doll in his hands but his eye was on her. "You alright, Sakura?" 

She nodded because she couldn't do anything else. A second later, she had pushed herself up from the floor and was making her way through to the dining room. Her team followed her without question and she stopped in front of the painting. 

"Mei," she said as she pointed at the little blonde girl. "Kai," the twin boy with a mischievous grin on his face. "Kenji." The other twin who was smiling up at his mother. "Mother, Father." She pointed to each of the parents in turn but hesitated when she looked at the man's face. 

"Sakura, what are you saying?" Sasuke asked. 

"Mei wasn't just the product of my headache or me slamming my head on the stairs. She existed and she was scared stiff of her father." Sakura didn't want to look at the picture. Whoever had painted it had done too good a job. Whenever she looked at his painted face, she remembered the cold terror in the pit of Mei's stomach every time she thought about her father.

"That's so weird," Naruto marveled as he gazed at the painting. "Does that mean Mei is a ghost?" 

"There are no such things as ghosts," Sasuke said in a dismissive tone. However, Sakura could see him examining the painting closely. 

"It is far more likely to be a genjutsu." Kakashi was examining the doll with his visible eye. "An unusual one. It will be a good learning experience." 

The three of them turned to stare at him. He stared back. "Out of the house, of course. Sakura, take the painting. The genjutsu seems to be targeting you specifically." 

Sakura ducked her head, not liking the sound of that. She reached up for the painting and removed it from the wall gingerly. It came off easily and behind the painting, the wall stood out as a dark patch of clean space. 

"Right, everyone out. Sakura and the painting first." Kakashi herded them out like ducklings and Sakura marched forward obediently. She turned the handle of the front door and pulled it open, only for it to jerk out of her grip like there were magnets attached to it and slam shut. Something hit her in the stomach and she flew backwards, knocking Sasuke and Naruto out on the way as well. 

"You three okay?" Kakashi was there as Naruto and Sasuke sat up. Sakura was still holding onto the painting and she felt bruised from where she hadn't been able to roll with the fall. 

"Did the door just stop us from leaving?" Sasuke asked. He looked stunned, his dark eyes hazy in the light. Sakura couldn't help but think he looked so handsome like that, all ruffled and sleepy looking. 

"It's the ghost!" Naruto said, quieter than he normally was. He looked freaked out and now Sakura was recovering from being thrown across the floor, so was she. 

"Or it was a trap," Kakashi pointed out. "Someone doesn't want us leaving this house." 

That wasn't much better because the thought of being trapped in the house with someone who had managed to escape Kakashi-sensei's notice was deeply terrifying. However, Kakashi could fight a human but he wouldn't be able to fight a ghost so all in all, Sakura knew which one she preferred. 

She bent her legs slightly, wanting to get up off the floor, and then froze. Hands were reaching up from the floor, at least five pairs, and they had her surrounded. She wasted precious seconds in shock and then was scrambling to get out of the way, painting forgotten. 

"Sakura!" Kakashi was there, reaching for her and her teammates were looking at her horrified but the hands had her in their grasp and she was being pulled down beneath the floor, somehow passing through the wood of the hallway floor. 

She must have blacked out at some point because the next thing she was aware of was being on the basement floor, with an exhausted-looking blonde girl staring at her. Mei. 

Sakura scrambled back away from her. 

"Sorry," Mei said. She looked so miserable that Sakura felt a tugging on her heartstrings, even though she was sure Mei was the one who had stuck her down here in the first place. "Father doesn't like us to leave." 

And then the next person stepped out of the shadows and Sakura screamed. 

The man waved his hand and her voice was cut off. Mei had crept closer to Sakura, seemingly unbothered by her screaming and was sitting next to her, watching the man warily. 

He was a beautiful man but there was something hideously twisted about his face. It was like someone had put together the perfect face and then left out the humanity from their creation. Dark eyes, dark hair and pale skin, Sakura had the wild thought that he resembled her Sasuke but then struck the thought out of her head. Sasuke's eyes never looked so... malicious. Sasuke could be cold and he could sometimes say cruel things but his eyes were passionate and he was so wonderfully human. 

This man suffered under no such thing. 

"That is far too much noise," he said, his tone melodious and Sakura found herself relaxing despite herself. Mei pressed herself closer and Sakura realised that where their arms were touching, Mei's flesh was cold. For a second there was quiet in the basement and Sakura could faint sounds from up above. Her team were looking for her and that gave her a burst of strength. 

"Who are you?" It felt like a foolish question to ask where Sakura was pretty sure she knew who he was. 

The man looked at Mei, who spoke up. "This is Father and he would like you to stay here in the basement with us." Mei's voice was almost robotic, nothing like when she apologised to Sakura before, and sounded so unhappy Sakura felt like crying.

Sakura wondered what would be the right thing to do. If they were human, like Kakashi-sensei said, they could be fought off. If they were ghosts, then Sakura could accidentally bind herself to the house and she would be trapped. 

She chose not to play along, the risk was too great. "No, thank you." 

The man looked amused and he bent his knees so he was on the same level of Sakura and Mei. He stared her in the eyes and Sakura found herself unable to look away. "Daughter, we have talked about this. Rebellion is unhealthy in one so young and you know we are safe here in the house." 

"I am not your daughter," Sakura struggled to keep her voice even and strong. Her heart was pounding against her chest and she wondered whether he could sense how scared she was. 

"Maybe not," the man conceded. "But you could be. I've seen how you were treated by your family above. They don't care for you, you're nothing but a burden to them. Haven't you seen the patronising way they treat you? If you stay here, they would mourn you for a while but then they would move on, the three of them. And you will be forgotten." 

Sakura swallowed. He was far too accurate for her tastes but he had forgotten her parents, her real father and mother. If her dad was standing her and saying these things, it would be far harder to block out the words, years of love and obedience telling Sakura to listen to the cutting words. But this man was just someone who had hurt her. Mei's fear was a bitter memory on the back of her tongue and she managed to turn her head away. 

"Do not be so quick to ignore me, daughter." Sakura felt a fire racing up her arm as soon as one of the man's hands landed on her. She tried to pull away but it was like struggling against a wall, unforgiving and unmoving. "You are weak and I am strong. You are alone and at my mercy. You cannot fight me." 

"Let go of me." Sakura aimed her kicks at the soft parts of the man but he moved easily away from her kicks. He had obviously learned since earlier. 

"Do not disobey your father." The man pulled her arm as easily as if she had been a rag doll and the next thing she knew, she was flying across the room and hitting the wall, too fast to give herself time to soften her fall. The snap of her bones breaking made her scream before the pain started to radiate up and down her arm. She couldn't move her arm and when she looked down at it, her arm was in an unnatural position. Her shoulder and lower arm burned and she felt tears escaping from her eyes as she rolled slowly so she could pull herself up to standing. 

There was a cry from up above and the sounds of wood cracking started. "You are not my father," Sakura said, staring the man right in his eyes. She didn't know where this courage was coming from but she hated bullies and Mei's fear of the man who should have taken care of and loved her was pounding in the back of her mind. "I have a father who acts like a proper father. He loves me and he doesn't lock me in the basement. Fathers do not hurt their daughters." She turned to look at Mei, who was staring at her like she was a strange alien she had never seen before. "Mei, he only wants to control you. He's hurt you before and you love him still because he's your father. But then..." She tried to remember what she felt when Mei was inside of her. "He took your doll away from you when he found it, didn't he? And he said he put it in the basement but when you went down to look, your dolly wasn't here." 

"I looked everywhere for her." Mei sounded like she was about to cry and Sakura wanted to comfort her but Mei's father was right there and he was building strength. 

"And then your father locked you in the basement, didn't he? And he left you there." Sakura faltered because she couldn't go on with her new understanding. The hours of thirst as Mei cried for water until she eventually died, curled up in the corner. 

"Shut up!" Another slam of Sakura into the wall and something shattered behind her back. The pain radiated out, not just from the impact point but from her already injured shoulder and arm. She cried and coughed as the dust rose up from where the wall had collapsed behind her. 

"Stop it!" Mei's voice was high and shrill. "Stop hurting her!" 

All of a sudden there was a lot of noise around her as someone crashed into the opposite wall to her and there was a loud noise up ahead. 

"Sakura!" Naruto's voice was so welcome and Sakura smiled as she turned to look up at her team. Sasuke and Naruto were switching their attention between Sakura and the threat in the room, while Kakashi was wholly focused on the threat. Sakura was sure he was very aware of what she was doing however, if there was one thing she had learned from Kakashi reading that damn book all the time, it was that he had really good peripheral vision. 

She turned to look at Mei, only to see her standing between her father and Sakura, feet firmly planted and hands in fists by her sides. It was a powerful stance and Sakura felt herself smiling. 

"You tell him, Mei," she whispered, unable to muster the energy to shout. Her legs seemed unhurt so she got to her feet as carefully and as quickly as possible, not taking her eyes off Mei and her father. 

"Leave her alone!" Mei shouted. "She didn't do anything to you. Leave her alone!" 

"Listen to your father, Mei," the man said in a stern tone. Sakura and Mei both flinched and Sasuke and Naruto came down to land beside her. Kakashi moved so he was equal with Mei, but wasn't crowding her. He obviously wasn't too sure of Mei but was willing to stand with her against the more obvious and powerful threat. 

"No! I don't want to listen to you anymore! You hurt people! I want you to go away." Mei's voice rose in a scream and Sakura moved forward instinctively, stumbling when the movement jarred her injuries. Her teammates were there beside her but she ignored them to focus on Mei. 

There was something happening. Mei seemed to be getting stronger, more clear than she had been before. She had been grey and miserable, like a blurred outline of a person rather than solid flesh and blood, despite the fact Sakura had touched her, but now she was vibrant and it was her father looking dull and washed out. 

"I want you to leave me alone!" Mei punctuated every word with another step and her father shrank in size. He flailed, unable to speak, but it was obvious he was trying to fight back against whatever Mei was doing. "Leave me ALONE." The shout did it and her father was gone from the basement, as if he had never existed in the first place. Sakura stared at the space where he had been and knew Mei had driven him out. 

The little girl turned to look at her and Sasuke and Naruto tensed. Kakashi hadn't dropped his defensive stance but he watched carefully, as if waiting to see what was going to happen. 

"Are you okay, Sakura?" Mei asked. She ignored the other three people in the room as if they didn't exist for her. Sakura nodded. 

"I will be." The two of them stared at each other for a moment before Sakura turned to Kakashi. "Kakashi-sensei," she said and her teacher looked at her. "Do you have the doll you took off me?" Kakashi nodded and pulled out the ragged doll Sakura had stroked the hair of upstairs barely an hour ago. 

Mei gasped when she saw it and Kakashi handed it to the girl at Sakura's nod. Mei hugged the doll and there was such happiness on her face that Sakura found herself smiling. Crying at the same time but smiling too. 

"Bye, Mei," Sakura said quietly. Mei said nothing, only smiled brightly at Sakura as the lines of her body started to get more blurred and faded. She disappeared and there was only the four of them left in the basement. 

"Right, everyone out of the house." Kakashi picked up Sakura, ignoring any protests she made, and carried her up the stairs with Sasuke and Naruto following. 

Outside was just as sunny and warm as it had been at lunchtime. It was hard to believe that everything had happened only in one day. 

Sakura yawned and let her head drop back against Kakashi-sensei's shoulder. She was tired and in pain and all she wanted to do was rest. 

"My shoulder hurts," she said quietly to Kakashi-sensei. She didn't want Naruto and Sasuke to hear but Kakashi was in charge of the mission and needed to know her injuries. "And my arms and my ribs. I think my legs are fine though, just bruised." 

Kakashi's hands tightened on her just for a second before he put her smoothly down on the grass, about twenty feet away from the house. "Let's get you sorted out. While I'm helping Sakura," he turned to Naruto and Sasuke, "Naruto, I want you to create several shadow clones to continue clearing out the house. Sasuke, you are to sort through anything that Naruto's clones bring out and if you see anything suspicious, you don't touch it but tell me straight away. Neither of you are to go inside the house, are we clear?" 

Naruto and Sasuke nodded and went to do what Kakashi asked, but not before the two of them cast Sakura's worried looks, though Sasuke's was far more subtle than Naruto's. 

"I think my arm is broken," Sakura said to Kakashi. 

"And your collarbone and likely your ribs as well," he added. "Ordinarily I would try to give you as much privacy as possible but I don't want to leave Naruto and Sasuke alone near the house. So." A few handsigns, the combination which Sakura didn't recognise, and the world blurred around them slightly. Sasuke's head immediately snapped up and Kakashi waved at him. 

"Still here, Sasuke, don't worry." Sasuke went back to sorting through the boxes, though with some reluctance. Naruto was ordering his clones around and Sakura could hear them crashing around inside the house. 

"Sakura, are you wearing anything underneath your dress?" Kakashi asked, his tone business-like and brusque, something he only did when he was trying to reduce the awkwardness of a situation. That didn't stop Sakura's cheeks flaring red. 

"A tank top. I'm covered, mostly." She lifted up a good hand and unzipped the front of her dress. Kakashi could have helped but she was glad he just waited until she fumbled her dress so it was off her good arm and halfway down her bad arm, exposing her upper half to the world. Instead of bandages, Sakura had chosen to wear a stretchy crop top which covered the top half of her torso, but left her stomach exposed and she was thanking the gods that she had chosen to do that this morning. 

Kakashi's hands were gentle on her purpling ribs as he felt for any displacement but Sakura still grimaced against the pain. After her ribs, was her collarbone, broken and displaced but not poking through the skin or grinding against anything. 

As he worked, Kakashi gave short explanations as to why he was doing everything, giving everything a slightly clincial air like they were in a hospital and he was a medic-nin. He helped Sakura shrug her dress back on and then went back to her arm, obviously deformed. 

"Hard part now, Sakura," he said quietly. "I'm going to need to pull your arm into place so I can secure it for the journey back to the hospital.Are you okay for me to do it? I'll have to ask Sasuke and Naruto to hold." 

Sakura wanted to say no. She didn't want her team to see her scream and cry, though the tear tracks from Mei's departure were still drying on her cheeks. But she had been reading a lot of medical texts lately and she knew all about swelling and trapped nerves and she hadn't been able to feel anything in her ring or little fingers since the arm was broken. 

If she didn't let Kakashi do this, then she could end up with the nerves never fully being restored and that meant her career as a ninja was over. 

"Okay." She couldn't say anything else but thankfully Kakashi-sensei seemed to understand. He gave her a numbing tablet, a strong painkiller which sometimes had nasty side effects but Sakura took it all the same. 

"Naruto, Sasuke," Kakashi called as soon as he dispelled the genjutsu. "I'm going to need your help." The two of them were there in a second, both of them looking a little too excited. Sasuke glanced at Sakura and something about her expression caught his attention, for he narrowed his eyes. 

"I have to pull Sakura's arm into place and you two have to hold her still. One of you has to hold her arm above the break and the other has to make sure she doesn't punch me." Kakashi-sensei had the decency not to sound too cheerful at this but he was far more casual than Sakura would have liked. She swallowed. 

"I'll hold Sakura's arm," Sasuke volunteered. He went around by her head and Sakura, urged by Kakashi, lay her head back on her own pack. Naruto sat next to her and put his hands on her shoulders, though he had to avoid the broken clavicle. 

He looked as pale as Sakura suspected she did and she gave him a shaky smile. 

"Alright, Sakura." Sasuke's grip was tight on her arm just below her elbow while Kakashi's hands were merely resting on the injured part of her arm. Sakura glanced at Kakashi and he gave her what was probably meant to be a reassuring smile but the effect was somewhat spoiled by the mask. "Scream if you want to. On the count of three." 

Sakura took in a shaky breath and Kakashi looked down at his work. Sakura glanced at Naruto, only to see his eyes were fixed on whatever Kakashi-sensei was about to do. With nothing else to look at, Sakura stared at the sky. 

"One, two - " Kakashi-sensei pulled and pain flared, white-hot and surprising. She screamed, the volume surprising even herself, but just like that, it was done. She gasped and sobbed as the pain faded into more of a pounding ache but it was done. 

"Good girl, Sakura," Kakashi-sensei said. He was strapping up her arm with a splint and wrapping a bandage around it but to Sakura's relief, her arm looked far more like an arm now. "Now it might not be perfectly in place but it should last until we get back to Konoha." Sakura wiggled her fingers and was glad that she could feel them all again. She had pins and needles in her little and ring fingers but it was nothing like the scary numbness of before. 

The painkillers kicked in more fully and Sakura felt herself drifting off into sleep as the sky darkened above her and her team moved around her. 

They stayed the night in the grounds of the house. Sakura woke up in the middle of the night and turned her head to look at the house. Kakashi noticed she was awake but said nothing and she drifted off to the sound of Naruto and Sasuke breathing deeply beside her. The next morning, they packed up their belongings and headed out. The house had been cleared and cleaned and Kakashi had declared that enough. 

Sakura had to use Kakashi's painkiller to keep going as they walked back to Konoha but at least she didn't have to carry her pack. Sasuke and Naruto were walking beside her, Kakashi behind with his head buried in his book as usual. 

"Sakura," Sasuke said slowly. "What do you think that was back there?" She looked at him, only to see Naruto was looking at her too. 

She shrugged her shoulders and then hissed as she was reminded why that wasn't the best idea right now. "I don't know. Kakashi-sensei said it was someone, a human being, who did everything. But he couldn't sense anything, even when the man was standing right in front of him. I couldn't feel any chakra coming from Mei or her father but he still managed to throw me against the wall." 

Naruto was the next one to speak up. "But you went all funny when you held that doll. And you knew what to do when the guy was gone and Mei was just staring at us." 

Sakura stared ahead and Naruto made a sound as if he was about to interrupt when Sasuke elbowed him in the ribs. "Quiet, idiot. She's thinking." 

Sakura shot him a grateful smile and Sasuke nodded back at her. He didn't blush or anything but he didn't give the usual dismissive reaction he normally had for Sakura. "I don't know. When I went all weird over the doll, I remember it as being Mei. I didn't remember being Sakura and when I looked at you, I knew the two of you were my brothers. You still looked the same but I felt like you were. It was weird and I was glad when Kakashi-sensei took the doll away. But then I knew what Mei wanted when it came down to it because of that. Her dad had terrified her all the way through her childhood and when she got that doll, she sort of treated the doll like she wanted to be treated. If the doll was safe and unhurt, then so was a part of her. When she got the doll back, she was whole again." 

"It was really strange," Naruto said. He seemed almost eager to keep the conversation going. "I think it was a ghost." 

"There are no such things as ghosts," Sasuke said but he didn't sound as sure as he had done before. Naruto's temper flared up and he and Sasuke started to bicker but Sakura just kept on walking, enjoying the slight haze the painkillers gave her and tried not to move her arm too much. 

She could sense her teacher coming up beside her more than hear him and she turned to look up at him, staggering a little at the change of balance. "What do you think, Kakashi-sensei?" Sakura asked. 

He walked a little while without answering her but to Sakura in her haze, it felt like no time at all. "I think it is something we'll never know for sure." 

"That is a rubbish answer, Kakashi-sensei," Naruto broke away from his argument with Sasuke to say. Kakashi's eyes crinkled and he laughed at Naruto, but it was a good-natured kind of laugh that made Sakura smile. 

"You're right, Naruto. But it's the only answer I've got." 

Konoha was in sight and Sakura wondered what they were going to report to the Hokage. This would be interesting.


End file.
